NS Safety Train Coming to Buffalo

[Rangerjim]

On September 12, Norfolk Southern, in cooperation with TransCare and the Erie County Emergency Planning agency will have the exhibit train in Bison Yard for an all day presentation on railroad safety, dealing with hazmats, rail passenger car safety, etc. It is open to the public and I highly reccommend the workshops for all WNY fire fighters and first responders. More details can be found at Norfolk Southern's website: http://www.nscorp.com/ I think a visit to this train and attending the workshops will well be worth the time of those firefighters and first responders able to attend. Though not active duty myself, Iam planning to attend to learn what I can and pass it along to my department.

[batchief99]

Is that the yard near the EC training grounds? If not where is and how do I get to the Bison Yard?

[Rangerjim]

If you are coming from the southern part of Erie County,say from south of Orchard Park. Catch the 219 expressway northbound, then take I-90 to the William Street off ramp, turn left on William Street and follow William Street west to Harlem Road (Route 240),turn right onto Harlem Road and follow Harlem Road over the railroad tracks to Gruner Road, where you will make a right hand turn, and follow Gruner Road to Bison Parkway,where you will make another right hand turn and that will lead you right to Bison Yard.

Coming from East Aurora: Take 400 to I90 East, then I90 to William Street onto which a left turn is to be made, follow William to Route 240 (Harlem Road, then turn right onto Harlem Road, follow Harlem Road over the railroad tracks to Gruner Road, where you will turn right, proceed to Bison Parkway and make another Right turn which will lead you into the yard.

Those coming in from Depew,Lancaster, and Alden should proceed down Broadway to Kennedy Road, which will be a left Turn, follow that to Gruner Road, which will be a right turn, then Bison Parkway will become a left turn and lead you into the yard. Printed maps can be obtained from the Mapquest website custom taylored to your needs. I hope this information is helpful. The flyer can be found at the Norfolk Southern website, or you can have me e-mail it to you right from my desktop. The brochure which I also have on my desktop gives more details. An additional contact, which is very important is Mr. Harry Myers, whose e-mail address is: hmyer@hodgsonruss.com. He has further details on obtaining information on workshops, registration, etc. I hope this is enough information to take care of everyone in the area.

[batchief99]

Thanks for the directions

[Rangerjim]

You are very welcome. Glad to be of Help. Bison Yard was originally Erie Lackawanna's freight classification yard for Buffalo,NY, traces of the hump used to break up inbound trains can be seen from the westbound lanes of the Thruway west of Walden Avenue. The yard had 72 classification tracks, a diesel service area, shop facilities for repairing cars, and a west end tower governing N&W,C&O and EL trains coming in from the west..It replaced the ex Lackawanna Railroad's East Buffalo Yard, on whose land Bison was built and relegated the Erie's SK yard to supplemental facility status. Conrail later decided it could do without Bison and concentrated all freight classification work at the New York Central's Frontier Yard and pulled out most of the tracks. It is now Norfolk Southern's intermodal and auto unloading facility for Buffalo. It its heyday, Bison could classify up to 2500 cars a day. Just thought I'd share a little railroad history while I am at it. You ought to see my timetable collection. All railroads serving Buffalo are featured.

[batchief99]

"More details can be found at Norfolk Southern's website: http://www.nscorp.com/"

I went here and took a look. Where did they hid the info about the visit?

[rangerjim93]

To find out more about the Train's schedule on Norfolk Southern's website, do the following: 1. Click on ABOUT NS and a dropdown menu will appear. 2 On the drop down menu, click on EXHIBIT CAR, and that will take you to the page about the car. Once there, Click on 2005 Schedule and that will give you the year's schedule for the Exhibit car as well the train itself. I should have put this up sooner.

[Rescue21D]

It will also be in Binghamton on Tuesday, September 13th.

[rangerjim93]

You will get a lot of useful information out of going through this train. When time permits, try the locomotive simulator and you will get to see things from the engineer's viewpoint,particularly when grade crossings are concerned. I took three workshops and would have done more if there had been time. The Operation Lifesaver class is one I highly reccommend. So are those on how to deal with derailments, tank cars. A lot of good learning is to be had from this train. I am now writing up a report to be given to all the officers in my department. They missed a most invaluable learning experience yesterday. Turns out I was the only one from Wyoming County, let alone the Perry department attending.